Editorial: Alternative energy is a natural in NY

Thursday

Nov 30, 2017 at 4:37 PMNov 30, 2017 at 4:37 PM

The late fall sun, pale and intermittent as it is, shines on something practical and exciting at the area that once was a landfill in the Town of Ulster. The installation of 6,120 solar panels, a county press release reports, is on schedule to start generating power this spring. When it is up to full speed, it should average 3 million kilowatts a year and remove the greenhouse-gas equivalent of burning 2.4 million pounds of coal.

The winter winds are on their way but they will have to work to catch up to some gusts in the fall. Just a month ago, on Oct. 30, the New York Independent System Operator reported that high winds broke the state's record for the amount of electricity generated by wind power with 1,622 megawatts.

This comes, as state officials noted, at a time when New York is trying to better utilize its natural resources to generate power and to reduce the need to use power from more polluting sources.

And while you might think of Arizona or some other sunny winter destination as a more likely source of solar power, while you might consider someplace with a reputation for high winds as the more likely locale for turbines and the like, you might be surprised by some other news that the system operators are happy to spread.

It turns out that New York is the 15th windiest state in the nation. It’s not as breezy as the top five, in order: Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, North Dakota and Iowa. But as all New Yorkers know, it does have some pretty windy spots atop mountains large and small. And when it comes to wind power, that is something we can work with.

The recent peak of wind power generation is exciting because, unlike much other speculation concerning alternatives, it is real. It is not a measure of winds and what they could do; it’s a calculation of how much power the fledgling wind power industry in New York is already producing.

In 2016, about 85 percent of the electricity generated in upstate came from wind, nuclear and hydropower resources while about 75 percent of the electricity generated downstate came from fossil fuels.

There is a local component to all this, an issue that is much more than symbolic for the move to less-polluting forms of energy. That is the almost completed Competitive Power Ventures power plant in the Town of Wawayanda. Opponents hope that it can be stopped by court or regulatory action. Proponents argue that with most of the work already done, it makes no sense to stop it from coming online.

But if we are going to move in the direction we should, if we are going to use the natural resources that even in New York can provide most and someday all of our energy needs, then we need to make sure that investments go in that direction, that we minimize or end any expenditures for more power from fossil fuels.

When you find yourself in a hole, the wise advice goes, the first thing you do is stop digging.

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